Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

OPINION

Letter: How slurs brought down Hillary and elevated a fraud

For decades, Hillary Clinton was scorned for her talent, her public service, and the indiscretions of her husband. Good ol’ boys resent high-powered women, but Hillary has never been an easy target. It took decades of cheap shots and sleazy soundbites to undercut her chances.

One key word is “projection” — a tactic used to turn tables and malign the reputation of an opponent.

Briefly defined: A bad actor blames his bad actions on a challenger. He belittles, berates, and defames with such frequency and ferocity, the repetition of cheap shots creates a phantom reality. Horse and rider change places as projections turn innocent people guilty and guilty persons innocent.

Witch hunts without merit: condemnations in kangaroo courts of public opinion -- from Bill to Benghazi, Hillary has been blamed for misdeeds she never committed. Yet the taint of hearsay never goes away. “Crooked Hillary!” A campaign slogan confirms an American hypocrisy: Our culture is steeped in sexism.

Election 2016 witnessed a perfect storm of gutter politics, FBI malfeasance, misogyny, and Russian intrigue. And our newsrooms were either complacent or complicit.

How do partisan cheap shots stick glue-like in the minds of the public? People tend to react irrationally in binary terms: tribe versus tribe, us against them, better him than her.

Binary reasoning is the wellspring of bigotry, partisan bias, sexism, and rhetorical abuse in our public life.

Repetitious soundbites build over time and play continuously in the mind like an old radio jingle. In American politics, this is how the mendacious and disputatious con man won.

Jeffrey Berger, Vero Beach

Read or Share this story: https://www.tcpalm.com/story/opinion/readers/2017/02/03/letter-how-slurs-brought-down-hillary-and-elevated-fraud/97033768/